Week 1 update

So I have now officially started term and I wanted to up date you a little on how things have been so far and what my first thoughts on some of my modules, societies and uni in general.

Management de l'entreprise:

On Monday I had my first lesson at 8am, which for me seemed stupidly early but is something I will have to get used to. This was one of my elective modules and is a class of about 20 students, I would say maybe 60% exchange students, some studying at Sciences Po full time but originally from other places and a few actual french students. The two professors that run this module seemed great, both of them work (always have and still do) in consulting, one for Capgemini and the other now owns his own company, so it's pretty cool that they run this module alongside their jobs.

One of the main aspects of the module is creating our own business in small groups, similar to a module I did in first year of uni so I think that will be really interesting and its also a great way to get to know other people. Another big aspects of the module is discussion and class participation so I think that will be really good for my french too and it will force me to speak in class in order to get a good grade.

Overall this module is looking like its going to be interesting, it's just a bit early for a Monday morning!

Espace Mondiale: 

This is my big lecture course, under the heading of international relations and takes place in the big "Emille Boutemy" lecture hall. I had this on Monday and I'm not going to lie I sat in the huge hall filled with hundreds of students feeling completely lost. The professor was very french (see right) and he spoke very quickly about all these different theories that I struggled to keep up. Before I had finished typing the first part of a sentance I had forgotten the rest of it and he had moved on to something new. It's much harder than I realised to type things in french at high speed as I don't seem to remember them as easily as I do in English when trying to type and listen at the same time. I hope that I will get better at this over the next few weeks!


I also have for this a 'conférence' which is in smaller groups of around 20. In my class there are only 3 exchange students for this (including me) and the rest are 2nd year Sciences Po students, so this is going to be really good for my french. We have to do a 15 minute individual exposé and my topic for this is "qu'est-ce que c'est la gouvernance mondiale?"(what is global governance?). The thought of having to stand in front of the group and discuss this on my own for 15 minutes is pretty scary but mine is at the end of term so hopefully by then I will be improved and a lot more confident!

As well as this there is presentations of the readings each week, done in pairs. Mine is in a couple of weeks with two other french guys and luckily the text to present is in english so that will ease my in a bit as scholarly articles scare me in english let alone french! The worst part though is probably the 4 and a half hour exam at the end of the term. There is no way I can write for that long, my hand would fall off!!

There is also a big emphasis on maps and cartography in this module which to be honest I don't really understand the relevance but we shall see. So hugely mixed feelings and not real excitement about this module but hopefully it will get better.

Societies:

I have found that there is a "pom" society at Sciences Po. My excitement went through the roof! I didn't think there were any sports I could be even remotely ok about and I really wanted to do a sport to meet people but then I found cheer! I have tryouts next friday and fingers crossed if i'm not too awful then soon I'll be a part of the cheer soc! Woo hoo!

I have also discovered, just today, that there is a fashion society too! Hoping I will have a chance to use my video editing "skills" and maybe do some graphic design work for them, and the girl I spoke to said they have a lot of contacts who I can talk to about an internship too so that could also be pretty useful.

Sciences Po VS Warwick: 

So now that I have done a few days of lessons I have noticed some more differences/similarities between Sciences Po and Warwick.

As a fairly small collection of buildings right in the middle of the city Sciences Po does not have that much space to chill out. The library is not that huge and the main hall area/courtyard of the main building are always packed. For anyone at Warwick who knows what it's like trying to leave Ramphal building at the end of a lecture with all the internationals kissing and greeting each other in the doorway then imagine that on a much larger scale and you have an idea of what it's like here.

Also, whilst at Warwick we may have an abundance of (sometimes racist) geese and ducks, at Sciences Po there is a cat, Marcel. He lives in the 13 rue de l'université building and he just casually strolled past me whilst I am writing this. He even has his own facebook page and can be seen often chilling in classes on desks (see above). I suppose famous animals is a similarity between unis?

In other news, I still have no wifi at my apartment so yesterday I tried a cool internet café in Le Maris where you pay 4 euros an hour for unlimited coffee and snacks, called l'Anticafé. A really cool and original concept and a great quiet space to catch up on work or emails or just browse the web. See photos below:

   

I will update you on the other modules at the end of the week so stay tuned. 

Amsterdam - Part 3

We did some more cool, exciting things in Amsterdam. Including, of course, visiting the 'IAMSTERDAM' hollywood-style sign, located next to the Rijksmuseum.

I really wanted to go to the Rijksmuseum, the huge art gallery of Dutch art but it was quite expensive and as students on a budget we decided against it and opted instead for the Diamond Museum. I love diamonds, what girl doesn't, but it was pretty cool to learn about how they are extracted, the different types etc.

Did you know that only 10% of the world's diamond are used for jewellery? The rest are used for industrial purposes as diamond is so strong. 

We went to the Heineken experience after the Diamond Museum. This was Tom's choice of activity as I picked the Diamonds but it was actually really good fun! It was very interactive and you got free beer (which is great, if you like beer). Apparently women don't like beer because we sip it, tasting only the bitter foam and not the golden goodness of the actual beer which I didn't know but I have since tried taking larger glugs of beer and i'm still not sure that I like it... 

Another perk of the Heineken Experience is the canal ride at the end, included as part of your ticket, which takes you on a half hour canal tour round to their factory store. We didn't know this was going to be included but I would recommend it for this reason. With the 2 hour tour, free cold beer, and then the canal ride it is definitely worth the 16 euros the ticket cost! 

Amsterdam - Part 2

When in Amsterdam one has to visit the Red Light District. Architecturally its as beautiful as the rest of Amsterdam but I was a little shocked to see the underwear clad women stood in windows in the middle of the day! I guess they must have good heating...

As it was December everything was lit up and christmassy once it got dark which was nice, especially given my un-christmassy christmas that was coming up (as you'll see soon in the blog). 

I wish that I had a better camera so that I could get a kind of focus on certain things and then a blur on the background (definitely not the technical terms, I know). But anyway you can still appreciate the beauty of the city in the photos I took.